Teleconsultations at a Pediatrics Outpatient Service in COVID-19 Pandemic: First Results.

Abstract

Objective: Describe our experiences using teleconsultation approach to care for pediatric subspecialty follow-up patients during pandemic period. Methods: Synchronous teleconsultation solution was developed and implemented as a multiplatform/multimodality service, capable or running on desktop browsers and smartphones, and capable to handle chat, audio, and video. Term of consent was applied. Absolute number and percentage of patients assisted, as well as the form of consultation and the mean of attendance per patient were presented. Results: A telemedicine service was started using tools provided by The Santa Catarina State Integrated Telemedicine and Telehealth System offering real-time chat, through an online-based teleconsultation service. We assisted 75 patients in 109 consultations in 3 months, of which 69.7% were performed by chat. Mean of consultations per patient was 1.45. Conclusion: To our knowledge this is the first service in offering this modality of medicine for Brazilian public health care system. Patients and health care personnel reported satisfaction.